BUCKSHOTS

What's giving you a rash this week?

The out-of-control arrogance in professional sports today? The latest in labor? The price of a lousy stadium hot dog?

An overpaid player? An underhanded agent? An owner who would sell the carpet from underneath his own mother's feet for the right amount of PSLs and luxury boxes?

Where can you get off your chest something boiling inside your belly?

Right here. Right now. Buckshots, a weekly dish-it-out-and-duck feature, is designed to give you, the subscriber, a chance to take your best shot at Ray Buck, national columnist for SportsLine USA.

Agree or disagree, let 'er rip. Sign your name -- if you dare -- and tell us a little about yourself: age, city, state, occupation/student. Just remember, Buck has the last word.

E-mail your comments to: buckshots@sportsline.com

Jeff George takes his lumps

October 10, 1996

By Ray Buck
SportsLine USA National Columnist

E-mails over cocktails... keeping in mind that some whines never mature. "JUST ONE QUESTION for ya, Ray," writes George Brooks. "If you're going to put Jeff George in The Whine Cellar, this time, can you chain him there? Thanks!"

BUCKSHOT: Al Davis is just waiting for Boy George to come free, no chains attached.

"MAYBE GEORGE TOMA, world renown groundskeeper of NFL fame, will take (George off Atlanta's hands)," Tom "Texkan" Sargent of northern Virginia suggests. "You know, Toma is always looking for someone that likes to work on grass!

"P.S. -- Ray, pretty soon you may have to start thinking about a Whine Cellar Hall of Fame."

BUCKSHOT: Your reference, of course, is to George's desire to play for a "grass" team with a chance of making it to a Super Bowl and without a franchise quarterback already in place. Short list: Raiders and Chiefs.

"I WORK ALL MY LIFE to get a little ahead of the game we call life and most of these guys don't realize how quick their careers can end," points out Frank Wiget. "He should have taken any deal offered (such as Seattle's six-year, $30-mil lion offer with a $5 million signing bonus) and grinned about.

"I hope he does end up permanently out of a job."

BUCKSHOT: There is always a need in the NFL for a quarterback. Dave Krieg proves that every year.

"JEFF GEORGE NEEDS to grow up ... (and) if somebody thinks he's the answer, they need to have their head examined," says Kurt Moser, posing the question of the day: "Is Canada calling?"

BUCKSHOT: Yeah, Whine-ipeg.

"I'M SICK OF THESE crybaby pro sports athletes who have to be coddled and given the red-carpet treatment just because they happen to be lucky enough and gifted enough to play pro sports," grouses Dennis Parker.

"Any normal person would be thanking their lucky stars to make even a 100th of what these jerks make."

BUCKSHOT: Let me make this as painless as I can, Dennis. Based on his current contract ($3.363 million), George could pay the salaries of no fewer than 84 "normal" people each earning $40,000 per year. With what he turned down from the Seahawks ($5 million per year), make that 125 "normal" people. Feel better? Didn't think so.

"RAY, YOU PUT the wrong person in the Whine Cellar," writes Johnny Root of Temecula, Calif. "That person should be Paul Allen for not being able to toss away $30 million, just like so much confetti at a parade. Only in America!"

BUCKSHOT: Actually, they have parades in other countries, too.

"JEFF GEORGE IS THE biggest whiner, baby and loser that I've have ever seen in pro football," says Mark Miller of George's hometown of Indianapolis. "He's arrogant ... and why?

"He thinks he deserves more money and he wants to play only on a potential Super Bowl winner. Keep dreaming, Jeff! Ultimately, you could gain some respect from teammates, but never from the fans!"

BUCKSHOT: The paying customer has trouble warming up to a money-grubbing, self-centered, ingratiating whiner who has won barely 36 percent of his NFL starts. Funny how that works.

"I ROOT AGAINST a few teams in professional sports," admits J.T. Ferg. "But now I have another individual that I can root against.

"Dale Hunter, Roberto Alomar, Michael Irvin ... now Jeff George."

BUCKSHOT: Marge Schott could own these guys.

"ROBERTO ALOMAR SHOULD be permanently enshrined in the Whine Cellar. How about it?" asks Whine Taster.

BUCKSHOT: A lifetime member? I'll have to think about it. That's nothing to spit at.

"I THINK YOU MISSED the boat on this one," points out Allan C. Stam of the Department of Political Science at Yale University. "Alomar's 'loogie' incident tops Albert Belle's beh avior any day.

"But actually, Alomar's behavior is typical of the spoiled and indulged athlete that free-agency and the agents have created. Bon appetite."

BUCKSHOT: Talking about the Alomar incident again certainly has made me hungry.

"BASEBALL WAS FUN, then drab, now rude," writes Stan Douglas of Tucson.

BUCKSHOT: And that, folks, is the history of our National Pastime in a nutshell. (Stan was going to mention greed ... but he didn't want to get wordy.)

"BASEBALL IS A GREAT game," Edward Conradi reminds us. "The immature/overpaid players, owners and players union are the gangrene of the game."

BUCKSHOT: Somebody needs to amputate Donald Fehr from the picture.

"BUCK IS WRONG; the umps are right," contends mikey30@ix.netcom.com. "Alomar should be sent back to his country of origin and learn some manners, which are clearly lacking here. He should have been suspended for an entire season for his actions.

"I wonder how lightly Buck would take it if people spit on him every time they disagreed with one of his articles?"

BUCKSHOT: They do.

"KUDOS TO YOU. Great article! Rules are rules, aren't they?" Mike Staats asks rhetorically. "Being suspended for five games next season is a dictate of Major League Baseball. Alomar's action was a disgrace and he should face the consequ ence as set for by the league.

"Anything else would be like changing horses in the middle of a race. Umpires, who enforce the playing rules, should understand this."

BUCKSHOT: My point exactly. Thanks for putting it into English.

"HAS ALOMAR BEEN tested for the HIV virus in the last six months?" wonders Dave McCoy "Remember, this virus is spread by bodily fluids (e.g., spit) ... and wouldn't it be a pity if the umpire subsequently acquired this disease because of this outrageous incident?

"We are all aware of how often our 'beloved' professional athletes love to 'play the field.' "

BUCKSHOT: You're not the only one out there who raised this point, Dave. I wonder if the thought crossed John Hirschbeck's mind?

"THE ORIOLES WILL WIN the World Series because all this Alomar controversy has brought them together," opines Kevin Wilson, admitting to be the same guy who wrongly predicted a long afternoon for the Florida Gators last month at Tenness ee, saying Steve Spurrier would "throw the hat four times" against the Vols.

"No other team will be as focused as the Orioles. The media is pissing them off."

BUCKSHOT: But Yankee Stadium fans are grabbing the headlines. And everything hit to right and left field.

"I AM JUST AN OLDER LADY who always loved sports," e-mails < STRONG>Helen Smalley-Bower. "Baseball was my greatest passion. Now with the Alomar mess, I can't even bring myself to tune in a game.

"What is it going to take for these young men to realize that proper behavior is important? They do need to set an example for kids ... and they aren't. It makes me sick. I don't know if I'll ever enjoy a game again."

BUCKSHOT: Watch the games, Helen. Just don't set yourself up by believing all players can be role models.

"Warren Moon rules!" writes Tim Wittwer. "At 40, he never has a problem throwing the ball. I want to see Brett Favre do that."

BUCKSHOT: Check back with us in 2009. That's when Favre turns 40. By the way, Moon doesn't drink anything alcoholic; Favre merely says he won't.

"THE NFL HAS SIMPLY priced itself out of the average person's affordability," says Chuck Kosel. "I am a supermarket manager and used to get free tickets all the time.

"Now as food companies have downsized to become more profitable, they've doused this type of gratuity from the budget ... as have most American businesses. I will not go out and pay $50 to see a game, close to $25 for something to eat and another $10 t o park. It's free on TV, so why pay?"

BUCKSHOT: Too bad we can't find the same kind of alternative to buying groceries.

"Next year, the Braves will have the major-league best record ever and will win their third title in a row. Count on it!" predicts 14-year-old Samuel Howe.

"Dave Justice will be back. Greg Maddux will have another (Cy Young-type) year. Terry Pendleton will resume the lead in the clubhouse. The Braves will be stronger than ever! And (opposing) managers will be peeing in their pants!"

BUCKSHOT: I think Bill Russell and Tony La Russa have started early.

"RAY, HOW COULD the Ravens be so stupid?" asks Joe Cavaliere, 25, of Mullica Hill, N.J. "Byron 'Bong' Morris should have been banned from the league for good. If I get caught at work with a trash bag full of pot in my car, I get fired, n o questions asked.

"These athletes have it all -- women, money, fame. It's never enough for most of them. Anyone who is convicted of any drug offense ... gone. Anyone convicted of rape or spousal abuse ... gone. It should be as simple as that, just like it is for everyon e else in the world.

"P.S. -- I hope Morris fumbles five times in his first game back. That loser!"

BUCKSHOT: Bong! Isn't that also the sound that a fumble makes when it hits AstroTurf?

"I NOW WONDER HOW I ever was a Raider fan," e-mails sevsun@soca.com from Los Angeles. "Instead of hanging our heads and waiting for another L.A franchise, I am one who hopes we never have to swallow another bunch of overpaid, underachiev ers like the Raiders.

"Thanks to Al Davis and his extraordinary greed, Oakland now is the 'sucker of the year' and deserves Al and his bunch of grubs. L.A. does not need football.

"There I said it! P.S. -- Raiders suck."

BUCKSHOT: The Raiders have now lost 10 of their past 12. It's enough to make Al dress in pastels.

"I AM A HUGE Cowboys fan. What I don't like, however, is the image that the Cowboys give to the NFL, its fans, and the youth of America today," writes Mike Haas .

"I don't think Michael Irvin should've been suspended five games; he should've been suspended the whole year."

BUCKSHOT: Too bad you're not a huge conscience inside Irvin's head. He could've used you last summer.

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